Getting A Newborn To Sleep

[Ruck]

I have a new born that is just over a week old. I know babies sleep 18-20 hours a day and they decide the schedule but it just seems my new born's hours to be awake is from 11 PM till about 4 AM. Doesn't both me any because I work a night shift so to be up with him on my time off is easy enough for me. Even on this time off, I stayed up till 3 last night with him and back up at 9:30 because I can function on very little sleep.

Yet my wife is the one lacking sleep that can't really function. I try to keep him up in the mornings when I get up and in the afternoons, so he will sleep during that time. Take yesterday for example, I had him up about three hours in the morning and four hours or so in the afternoon. Momma fed him and he fell asleep. I put him in his bed around 11 after he had been sleep for about two hours. Suddenly he is up and going till 4.

I have been told to put rice cereal into their bottles but I know that is when they are older.

Any tips to what to do? My wife is loosing sleep and I go back to work on Monday and would like to atleast get my son to sleep four or five hours at night so my wife can get some rest.

[applepansy]

While he was in your wife's tummy he was being rocked to sleep during daylight hours. Your wife probably felt him more during the night while she was trying to sleep. He still has his days and nights mixed up. It takes time and patience to get his clock reset. Keep trying. Give your wife as much time to sleep as possible. If the baby is asleep, then she must sleep.

Eventually he'll sleep when he's suppose to and it will be come easier. A milestone that helps is when they start on solid food, around 3 months old. Rice cereal before bed. :)

Good Luck. I do know how frustrating this is. My 2nd son didn't sleep at night until age 6 months. I couldn't get his clock reset to save my life. It took two weeks of crying to get him to figure it out. Now, 29 years later, he works grave yard shifts and loves it. :)

Best Wishes....newborns are wonderful and they stick around long. Enjoy him all you can right now.

"Cleaning and scrubbing can wait for tomorrow

For babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow.

So, settle down cobwebs and dust go to sleep,

I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep."

--Anonymous

EDIT: I'd turn the clock back to those sleepless six months in a second. There is absolutely nothing as wonderful as a newborn. :)

[NeuroTypical]

Here's what worked for us (and by 'worked', I mean 'my wife was out-of-her-head-insane from sleep deprivation for the first year, but now the kid is 6 and everyone finally gets sleep now').

Bassinet by the bed. Mom didn't have to leave the bed to grab the kid.

Dad shares the sleep depriviation by taking his turn. Yeah, you got to work - she needs to not kill the children. Pick up some of the night time duties.

Mom sleeps when the baby sleeps. Keep other distractions away. Find something to do with the older kids if they're not old enough to help with the baby.

Good luck! The LM house has both a husband and a wife who never want to go through those days again. We're content with just wanting to go back to the toddler days.

LM

[applepansy]

The LM house has both a husband and a wife who never want to go through those days again. We're content with just wanting to go back to the toddler days.

LM

Be careful... I wished for another newborn and got a ready made toddler.

[Ruck]

We got a bassinet next to the bed and at nights she only gets up to feed him. Other than that, I am usually the one that has been getting up to change him, burp him, etc.

After talking to my wife, I guess last night was better on her than the nights before so hopefully he is getting to it. He has been up all day so far so I am thinking that he might sleep good tonight. Thanks guys.

[applepansy]

Best Wishes and Good Luck!!!

Remember these little spirits come with great big personalities and their own great big agency.

He will sleep for you at the right time eventually.

[Maureen]

His awake clock is normal since he's only a week old. When he does try to stay awake during the wee hours in the am, make sure that the house stays somewhat dark and quiet. Speak to him in whispers. Slowly showing him that night time is sleep time. Although with new borns, the majority of the whole day is sleep time. :) Make sure that stimulation at night time is very minimal. Try walking around the dark house or a car ride, the motion might do the trick. I don't like letting babies cry it out, especially when they're that young, even when they are not that young.

Good luck Ruck!

M.

[Gwen]

one thing to keep in mind and my doc didn't tell me this till #3, once the baby gets a bit older you will want to move the cradle out of the room. the baby can smell mom's milk up to 6 ft away. if the baby gets to the point that it may sleep through a feeding but smells mom's body getting ready for the feeding it will wake up to eat just cause it can.

i found there wasn't much that could be done at 1 week. 3 months is a little easier to work with. so i guess all i can offer is this....

[MarginOfError]

If your son is just a week old, it's way too early to be concerned about how to get him to sleep. Before he really settles into a rhythm, he'll need to develop a sense of circadian rhythms (sleep at night, awake during the day). Unfortunately, that's a cognitive/psychological development that most newborns have developed by 12 weeks, although some will develop earlier.

So while sleep deprivation certainly stinks, try to keep a little perspective. Your little guy just spent 9 months in what amounts to a poorly lit fish bowl. Then, suddenly, he gets yanked out an exit that measures around 4 inches, introduced to all these bright lights, no longer gets his food from a cord, and he's still trying to figure out how to poop. The poor guy has plenty of things on his mind, and sleep cycles aren't at the top of the list. Rest assured, the priority level of sleep cycles will soon get bumped up.

In the meantime, make sure he's eating as much and as often as he wants, sleeping as often and as long as he wants, and gets lots of cuddles. That's all he needs right now.

If you want a good indicator, about the time your son stops shivering is about the time he'll start adjusting his sleep cycles (infants will shiver in a way that it looks like they are cold when in fact, their neurological systems aren't fully developed yet, and so the shivers are just random spasms as the system completes its development).

[Guest Alana]

MY first thought was: HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Then, I settled down, laughed a little more, then settled down for real. Don't get too mad, I'm 6 months pregnant and in for it all over again myself.

one week old... only so much you can do because you have to feed them at least every 4 hours any ways. Ok, so I'd let them go a 'little' longer at night if they let me, not that they ever did....

My first thought is, you staying up, chillin with baby at night might be helping him stay awake. At night keep it dark, keep it quiet, keep it not stimulating. In the day, when the baby is sleeping, let him/her sleep in a room with natural light.

An other thing I would do is feed a lot in the evening. Try to sneak in an extra feeding if possible, so that the baby is very milk drunk when it's time for bed. I would also go ahead and feed in bed, while pretty much asleep, to get a few extra winks in, the first couple of months. I think my kids took almost 2 weeks to figure out the whole day/night thing. Hang in there. I promise it does get better. I started doing stuff like putting the keys in the fridge, but I'm mostly ok now!

[talisyn]

Gwen, you made me cry with that song!! *sniff* Darn pregnancy hormones

[Hemidakota]

I have a new born that is just over a week old. I know babies sleep 18-20 hours a day and they decide the schedule but it just seems my new born's hours to be awake is from 11 PM till about 4 AM. Doesn't both me any because I work a night shift so to be up with him on my time off is easy enough for me. Even on this time off, I stayed up till 3 last night with him and back up at 9:30 because I can function on very little sleep.

Yet my wife is the one lacking sleep that can't really function. I try to keep him up in the mornings when I get up and in the afternoons, so he will sleep during that time. Take yesterday for example, I had him up about three hours in the morning and four hours or so in the afternoon. Momma fed him and he fell asleep. I put him in his bed around 11 after he had been sleep for about two hours. Suddenly he is up and going till 4.

I have been told to put rice cereal into their bottles but I know that is when they are older.

Any tips to what to do? My wife is loosing sleep and I go back to work on Monday and would like to atleast get my son to sleep four or five hours at night so my wife can get some rest.

Wait until you have eight of them.

Our first one, I learn by hardship and place her into the car seat in the car, then drove around the city block. She fell asleep.

[Ruck]

Well he is almost two weeks old and I think we got it figured out. I put a blanket under the bassinet mattress to raise him up, a tip that my wife's grandma told us. That helped some but only every so often. But the other night, my wife fell asleep feeding him and she woke up and I guess he was out of it. She picked him up and put him in his bed and he slept there for like two hours.

Guess the trick is to make sure he is totally asleep instead of just getting to sleep.

[Maureen]

...Guess the trick is to make sure he is totally asleep instead of just getting to sleep.

And it really depends on the baby. My daughter was the type that had to be totally asleep before being placed in her crib and my son was just the opposite. I would put him in his cradle still awake and 5 minutes later he would be sound asleep without a peep.

M.

[baver3]

Your baby has its days and nights mixed up right now. One week old is so young. Give him/her some time to change to your schedule. Its going to take some time.

Do not give your baby rice cereal! You should not be introducing this until the baby is about 4-6 MONTHS old. My doctor told me that babies wake up in the night when they need an extra feeding. They need so many calories in the day. If they are short some, they make wake you for an extra feeding.

I like the advice about the rocking. Feeding in bed is great for the nursing mom. I highly recommend that.

You are going to be a zombie for about 6 weeks. Just take every day and night as it comes. Be patient with your little one. All they know is when they are hungry.

Oh, another tip was when you need to change their diaper in the middle of the night try to keep everything totally quiet and dark and dont talk to them much. Finish the job and then swaddle them up and put them back down to sleep.

Pretty soon they will get the hang of 'night time' and before you know it you will be sleeping through the night!